i just bought and successfully tested crucial m550 512 gb, i record 4k raw 30p from start to end of disk without stop and without drop frame, BUT...

after few day of test, i can see some strange work.if i turn on camera, and ssd is recognized, all work fine. If is not recognized i must turn off and on camera many times to be recognized.the strange thing is that camera recognize it, also when say no ssd, but not mount it, if i go on menu i can format it, and use, but if turn off camera, then i turn on, is a russian roulette...

i think is connected to the bootup time of ssd controller. Crucial M500 240gb work fine everytime i use it, but is slow, then only 24/25p 4 raw, not 30p raw.

We've tried a few Crucial SSD's and gave up on them as they are very hit or miss on whether they are seen and drop out. I wouldn't recommend them.

I have a SanDisk 960GB Extreme Pro Solid State Drive (SDSSDXPS-960G-G25) and BlackMagic 4k camera. The card works when I am shooting 4K RAW but when I try to go to AppleProRes the camera do not find the SSD. Why?

tomastomasson wrote:I have a SanDisk 960GB Extreme Pro Solid State Drive (SDSSDXPS-960G-G25) and BlackMagic 4k camera. The card works when I am shooting 4K RAW but when I try to go to AppleProRes the camera do not find the SSD. Why?

Kind of a basic question, and I apologize but I just got the Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB and I've never used an SSD with a spacer before. Is the spacer supposed to go on the top of the drive? I only ask because I'd assumed it would go on the bottom until I'd actually tried putting it in the camera and saw that the space was on the top.

danalexbaker wrote:Kind of a basic question, and I apologize but I just got the Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB and I've never used an SSD with a spacer before. Is the spacer supposed to go on the top of the drive? I only ask because I'd assumed it would go on the bottom until I'd actually tried putting it in the camera and saw that the space was on the top.

I'm glad it's not just me that's puzzled by this. I use the Sandisks in a MultiDock and I can't figure this out at all. You can't put the spacer on the bottom because it conflicts with the contacts, but if you try it on the top it prevents the SSD from being inserted properly. So the drive flops in the slot!!

I'm a little bummed with my Digistor 480GB drives and 4K RAW. They keep dropping frames in under a minute of record time. I bought these drives under the impression that Blackmagic was working with Digistor to make the best SSD possible for the BMPC 4K. Apparently I was wrong in my assumption and spent the extra money needlessly. I have tried formatting in the camera as both exFAT and HFS+ as well as Mac OS Extended on my computer, all with the same results, give or take 20sec. That being said, I have had no problems with ProRes recording on these drives, just when I record 4K RAW.

I was told today by Blackmagic support that "We were careful enough not to list any of the drives as recommended for 4k raw until that feature was available on the camera. We did recommend certain drives for 4k ProRes and also for the 2.5K raw on an earlier model, one of them at the time was a digistore."

My response to this comment that I sent back:

"4K RAW hadn’t been tested fully before it was released yet it was being marketed as one of the main selling points of the camera. As a professional and as a consumer, I’m careful to read any and all material I can get my hands on before making a purchase, especially one that involves a camera, which is my livelihood. If I’m unable to make an informed decision on a function a manufacturer is marketing to me as a main selling point because they are “careful enough not to list any of the drives as recommended for 4k raw until that feature was available on the camera” it makes me feel like I was deceived as a consumer. Shouldn’t this function have been tested fully before marketing it to me as a capability of the camera I’m purchasing? Withholding information or simply not listing it because you haven’t tested the 4K RAW, but you are telling me as a consumer that the camera is capable of shooting 4K RAW, is disingenuous to say the least.

That was the point of my comment. I paid more money for the Digistor drives than I would have paid for SanDisk drives of comparable space because they were recommended specifically by Blackmagic on their website and in the forums (granted not for 4K RAW). Now the drives I heavily researched and paid more money for are not compatible with a function of the camera that was being marketed to me when I bought the camera. Hopefully you can sympathize with my frustration."

I did not hear back from them but did add "You guys should really talk to your marketing team about how things are presented to your customers. I feel that this was misrepresented in all the material I read and researched before I purchased the camera and the drives."

I have to add that this is my 3rd BMPC 4K camera from Blackmagic. The first had a power issue with the internal batter. The second had FPN that was rendering my footage unusable. The third is much better as far as the FPN goes but now I'm unable to record 4K RAW without dropping frames until I purchase some compatible SSDs. I'm tired of beta testing this camera for Blackmagic. It's exhausting and the pay sucks! To their credit, Blackmagic Support has been very helpful and responsive and I have nothing but good things to say about them. It's just that I feel I shouldn't even be talking to them in the first place.

Thought I would post this in its entirety so that others can learn from my experience. I read forums A LOT to make decisions on gear and things like this go a long way for me, so hopefully this can help someone else out.

NO SSD PROBLEMI bought a SANDISK EXTREME PRO 960GB for my BMPC 4K but when I try to shoot in prores appear in the camera "NO SSD", while in 4K raw it recognize the ssd without problem.someone can say me why and what can i do to resolve the problem?

Matteo, I know this problem has been discussed so hopefully someone with the answer will post a solution soon.

As Peter has suggested above, make sure you are on the latest firmware. When the camera is seeing the SSD, while set to raw, can you reformat it in camera to exFAT? Might help to reboot the camera, but not sure.

Matteo Polo wrote:Thank you Rick! I read Peter's post and I'm sure I have the last firmware! I hope that someone will provide me with some answers soon!

Just so we know exactly what you have there: Which version firmware did you install? And, after installing the firmware, did you format your SSD in-camera? If you use a Mac, test using both the camera's HFS and exFAT format options, or for Windows format in-camera as exFAT.

Hi Peter,I install the firmware 1.9.10 on my BMPC 4K, and after installing the firmware I tried to format as in hsf as in exfat (I have a mac) but nothing changed. Is possible that there is a problem in the ssd? I have the possibility to change the SSD until the 20 of march, I do it?Thank you for your help,Matteo

Matteo, if it all possibly quickly see if the SSD is recognized when connected to a computer if you haven’t done that already. If you are using a Mac, and it’s recognized in Disk Utility, you could do a scan of it for errors. If it’s not recognized as a disk, then it would seem the SSD is corrupt.

**HOWEVER** the drives they now sell as PNY XLR8 still have the same code on the outside of the box (SSD9SC480GMDA-RB) but the INTERNAL code has changed. Very strange. I checked to make sure, and this was an unopened box and the others are the same apparently, according to the Frys guy who I got to go and open more boxes.

The serial / code for these new SSDs (on the back of the drive itself) are:SSD7SC480GLC-XLR

There is only ONE 480gb XLR8 drive that PNY sells, according to their website. So I guess they have just changed the coding? But the firmware also has changed - it now says "REV 6.0.0" whereas the old drives said "5.2.4". So who knows if it will work with BMCC raw?

Anyway, just wanted to share as techncially this drive is not on the BMCC approved list, and I didn't want anyone shooting anything without checking.

Digistor has a 1TB drive that is approved for RAW on the production camera 4k. DIG-PVD1000, pre-formatted ExFat. The 480 and the 240 are NOT approved. Digistor took the time to update the 1TB drive but did not choose to invest in the 480 and 240 technology that would work. Other manufacturers make drives in these capacities that work though.

I just got a Crucial M4 512 SSD and it came with a later firmware than the 009. If you look at the supported SSDs you'll see this particular drive listed with firmware version 009 only...

I called Crucial and asked to do a firmware update to 009. However, they said my firmware was more up to date and that firmware 009 causes complete crashes and data loss. In the end, Crucial wouldn't provide an option for firmware 009.

The issue that I experienced, before returning the drive, is that it took anywhere from 12 - 15 seconds upon every startup to recognize the SSD. I may have bought a bad drive as I ran a disk speed test on the drive for about 3 minutes. After the test, the BMCC couldn't find the SSD for anything. Then, I put the drive in the PC and it wouldn't find it for anything. After a few minutes, the drive worked again.

I'm having trouble recording raw on my BMPC. I have two Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB (SHSS37A/480G) that are listet as approved for raw recording, but I can only record about 6-10 seconds before I get a red exclamation mark on my display. I have tried formatting the drives in both HFS+ and exFAT.Any suggestions?

This is a seriously noob question (I've just ordered a BMCC), but what kind of problems can occur with unsupported cards? Dropped frames aside, will many simply refuse to work at all?

I'm looking at the discontinued list, and a lot of the prices are very attractive. I'm not particularly fussed about shooting RAW for the moment (I doubt I have the processing speed on my computer), will I be okay with a lot of those SSDs?

I just wanted to mention I am using the Samsung EVO 850 - 250gb to record raw in my bmcc with no problems or drops frames so far. It's a little thin so I made a small cardboard/tape shim for it to stop it moving in the camera.

I'm having trouble recording raw on my BMPC. I have two Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB (SHSS37A/480G) that are listet as approved for raw recording, but I can only record about 6-10 seconds before I get a red exclamation mark on my display. I have tried formatting the drives in both HFS+ and exFAT.Any suggestions?

Mikkel

Mikkel,I have had the same issue. All three of my HyperX Savage 480GB drives will drop frames. I just found out that they drop frames even when shooting at 1080p in ProRes HQ, which is ridiculous.I'm not sure why formatting in camera would solve this. Both in the camera and on the computer the drives are formatted as exFAT.I'm trying to return my drives. What was your solution?

I'm having trouble recording raw on my BMPC. I have two Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB (SHSS37A/480G) that are listet as approved for raw recording, but I can only record about 6-10 seconds before I get a red exclamation mark on my display. I have tried formatting the drives in both HFS+ and exFAT.Any suggestions?

Mikkel

Mikkel,I have had the same issue. All three of my HyperX Savage 480GB drives will drop frames. I just found out that they drop frames even when shooting at 1080p in ProRes HQ, which is ridiculous.I'm not sure why formatting in camera would solve this. Both in the camera and on the computer the drives are formatted as exFAT.I'm trying to return my drives. What was your solution?

I don't know what's causing your issue, but here are some things to check:

- It's possible Kingston changed how their SSDs work since Blackmagic did their testing last year. (I don't know if that's the case, but that sort of thing has happened before.) Do any other approved SSDs perform as expected in your camera?https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/faq/59007

I also had the exact same issue with the HyperX Savage 240gb & my BMPC4K. I've got three of them and they all drop frames when shooting raw. Sometimes they'll drop frames when shooting 4k prores 422 at 30fps if I haven't formatted them fresh. It was annoying but now I predominantly use them for less intense stuff. I've got a sandisk extreme pro 480 for raw shooting and it's all good. I guess they've changed something in the SSDs. They definitely need to be taken off the recommended for 4k raw list though because I bought them thinking they would be one of the better options. Other than that, it's not the end of the world. I find them reliable for other prores settings and still use them regularly.

The problem with Kingston drives are that they have been known to change the memory chips in them without changing the model number so if they change the chips then the drive may not be as reliable as the original versions

Adam Simmons wrote:The problem with Kingston drives are that they have been known to change the memory chips in them without changing the model number so if they change the chips then the drive may not be as reliable as the original versions

I'm having trouble recording raw on my BMPC. I have two Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB (SHSS37A/480G) that are listet as approved for raw recording, but I can only record about 6-10 seconds before I get a red exclamation mark on my display. I have tried formatting the drives in both HFS+ and exFAT.Any suggestions?

Mikkel

Mikkel,I have had the same issue. All three of my HyperX Savage 480GB drives will drop frames. I just found out that they drop frames even when shooting at 1080p in ProRes HQ, which is ridiculous.I'm not sure why formatting in camera would solve this. Both in the camera and on the computer the drives are formatted as exFAT.I'm trying to return my drives. What was your solution?

I have the same issue. I bought HyperX Savage 240GB and it has drop frames. Any solution?

I don't understand why Blackmagic approves this disk if RAW recording not works fine. It's a waste of time and money.

Hi guys, I'm just browsing through some more topics and I saw this one. Who would like to test a BiWin SSD for free? I need a pro camera user (which is probably everyone here, hehe). If they hold up to your strict tests, that would be awesome; you can keep the drive and spread the word. I've never used them in a camera before but I do have one in my laptop as the main drive, it's very quick. Read speed: 513-564MB/s, write: 400-450MB/s, depends on the capacity. I'll get the latest specs soon. They're not listed on my site at the moment but I can put them on there if there's demand for them. Sounds good?

Hi Matthieu, I just saw your post, thanks for your offer. I'll let you know when BiWin get more harddisks in stock. At the moment, there is a NAND memory chip shortage in the industry (https://epsnews.com/2016/10/12/supply-s ... orsens-q4/), so we cannot produce any TLC-based flash memory drives at the moment, which is what I would recommend for camera use. Our priority is to manufacture CFast cards right now.

For your own security, I think it's best if you remove your address from public, you can send it to me in private when the time comes. These forums are permanent and are crawled by search engines frequently.